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My Top Dos and Don’ts for College Tours With the school year starting and some families having older sons and daughters reaching for college hopes and dreams, it’s time to get ready to have a smooth transition. After visiting several colleges, and receiving great advice from friends who’ve already walked this path, I’m sharing tips for college visits you won’t want to miss. Why am I posting this? My favorite thing, besides good books and pretty places or jewelry, is to find resources and help families. With all we’ve survived and persevered through as wildfire survivors it has created a…

Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland When I was a tween the original Star Wars debuted and we stood in line in the hot sun for two hours to see it opening weekend, then stayed for three showings with my father and brother. It was so magical. I remember my younger brother playing with the action figures under the Christmas tree. We were all drawn into the story. As a college student, I competed nationally one summer for a marketing/public relations internship with Lucasfilm and got to see the amazing ranch in my hometown of Marin, California. It was thrilling….

[bws_captcha]It’s been a rough month with a series of weird situations that climaxed with our water heater bursting and ruining floors and walls in my office, my website failing for mysterious reasons, and now I am waiting to see if we will need an emergency move out of the house due to a crazy amount of bugs. We were surrounded by a two-story high cloud in the front of and behind our home for about two weeks while I’ve been trying to get answers and see what damage has been done, if it was termites, and if we need to…

Our family lives in Northern California in the Bay Area and we’ve been caught in an unusual situation, covered with smoke. As wildfire survivors who lost our home and all our possessions eleven years ago, it’s been a challenging couple of weeks as smoke from the Camp Fire rolled in and, like a stealthy dragon, wound its tail around our beautiful area. I was already having trouble with the news and praying fervently for friends’ relatives who were threatened in different fires throughout California. But suddenly… We awoke hearing sirens and seeing complete smoke outside the windows on a Saturday…

Recently a friend in Texas asked me for advice about how to approach sending a sympathetic note to her dear friends who had been flooded during the recent hurricanes. I knew immediately what she had in mind – she wanted to help or comfort them but really didn’t want to say the wrong thing. “You’ll know just what to do, Elizabeth, since you’ve lost everything before.” I never wanted to be the “disaster girl” or someone who had to become resilient, but she was right. I had some ideas to help her with the note and care package. Following a…

I have enjoyed knowing Author Jodie Wolfe for several years, after we took a writing class together with Author Jerry Jenkins and met in the Colorado mountains to share our love for words and creating stories. I can really relate to Jodie’s story today, of surviving a particularly low point after losing a key friendship. What I really appreciate was her intentional approach to learning from the situation and giving herself room to mourn and feel revived. In a world that’s all about fixing and perfectionism, her candor is refreshing and writing, and faith, is as well. I hope you’ll…

I met Kathleen Freeman through ACFW and have reveled in her positive attitude, wit, and humor in writing circles. When we began to spend more time together at conferences, I realized her personal story had circles of depth, like rings in a tree, where she’d chosen to learn from very tough situations and chose to persevere once again. She is definitely an expert at rebuilding, in many kinds of circumstances, which I appreciate as a wildfire survivor. I hope you’ll be encouraged by her very open sharing here in your own journey to continue building hope and faith into the…

I first met author Lindsay Franklin through some friends who love great fantasy and science fiction, and love writing it too. Lindsay is so funny and witty on line, and when I heard her story as a teen mom and stresses from raising a special needs child that would have shattered many people, I wanted to know more. To go deep. I’m so excited to introduce you to her today as part of the #LetResilienceArise series and I hope her story will encourage you too. And I’m waiting slightly impatiently for her two books coming out soon! By Lindsay Franklin…

I met Pam Vredevelt while filming a television segment on overcoming tragedies (HERE), and was so touched by her work with young mothers who’ve suffered a loss. After a couple of friends recently lost children, I kept thinking how difficult this Mother’s Day would be for them. Even if you have other children, sometimes the whispers of what would have been tug at your heartstrings uncontrollably. I know they did for me when we lost our baby, and it was hard to find people who could understand. But then many women started sending me emails of sympathy, sharing their own…

I met Amy Brock McNew through writing friends and was thrilled to sit next to her during lunch at an ACFW conference. In that crowded restaurant in Nashville, seated at a long table filled with enthusiastic writers, Amy huddled over her phone and looked very worried. I asked what was going on and she was waiting to see if her step daughter was all right after a second tornado struck her community, and crushed the Starbucks where she was inside. I’ll never forget Amy’s heart for her family and we all stopped right there to pray for them all to…